Just my opinion, but I wouldn't let the US News rankings sway my decision one bit. Now I'll rant about why
For those of you that don't know, here's my understanding of how the US News ranking works (correct me if you know otherwise):
They send out a form to each school and one person in charge (Dean, Dept head) fills it out. It asks them only to rank each school on a scale of 1-5.
If you've ever taken a methods class, you'll immediately see why this is not a very good instrument!
Where the ranker graduated from: 5
Where the ranker knows people he/she went to school with: 3-5
Where the ranker knows people he/she publishes with: 3-5
Where the ranker doesn't know anybody: 1-3
Where the ranker has a beef with somebody: 1-3
Where the ranker feels recruitment competition from: 1
Where the ranker has an ideological disagreement with faculty: 1
Hopefully the last few on that list don't occur often, but I think its a bit Pollyanna to think that doesn't happen.
How well can the ranker truly know each of 32 programs?
Is the ranker indicating the quality of: being a faculty at that school? being a student at that school? the quality of research from existing faculty? the quality of teaching from existing faculty? some mixture?
How well can a ranker differentiate between programs with a single score ranging from 1-5? In particular, how well can a ranker distinguish the top 5 schools from each other? Do they all get a 5, or do they range from 5 to 1, or...?
How long does a reputation last once earned? Are these reputation scores, ranked by the field's most senior faculty (deans and dept heads), actually indicative of reputations earned many years ago?
Notice how 7 of the top 8 ranked schools are within 0.3 points of each other? It could have just as easily been reverse ordered if a handful of rankers changed their scores by 1 or 2 points. How useful is it to compare #2 SUNY (4.2) with any of the schools tied at #5 (3.9), or #9 (3.8)?
IMO, the US News ranking is useful - at best - for roughly determining the top and bottom halves by reputation. Even then, I see several schools in both the bottom half and top half that I think could be swapped.
The last time US News did these rankings was in 2009. My understanding is that is because the schools were unhappy with how poorly devised their ranking system is. I think this might be reflected in the ADPCCJ meeting minutes archived on their website.
